Mercedes’ Valtteri Bottas has admitted the Formula 1 World Championship is “drifting away” from him after another weekend in which he dropped points to championship leader and team-mate Lewis Hamilton.
Bottas opened his 2020 Formula 1 season in strong form, taking pole position and victory at the season opener in Austria, whilst Hamilton finished fourth, following contact with Alexander Albon.
But since that race the Briton, who is chasing a record-equalling seventh title, has gone on to take four wins to open a 43-point lead over Bottas, who now sits third in the standings behind Red Bull’s Max Verstappen.
During that period Bottas has only once finished second, mounting the bottom step of the podium three times, and failed to score at Silverstone after his late tyre failure.
Speaking immediately after last weekend’s Spanish GP, Bottas, who finished third once again, admitted the situation is “far from ideal” and he recognises that the title is slipping away once again.
“Very disappointed of course, it’s far from ideal,” he said. “I have no clue what the points difference is, but it’s way too big and I can see again the championship drifting away.
“It will take a couple of days to look at everything and see what went wrong and move on. It’s very disappointing but I will always bounce back.”
Asked to evaluate his season so far, Bottas summed it up in two words: “pretty bad”.
“Apart from the first race it has been pretty bad,” he added. “There’s not been a weekend that has gone without issue, apart from the first one.
“Pretty bad season so far, obviously that’s disappointing so yes, nice to have a break. Hopefully we still have many more races to go, maybe even ten or something like this, I hope so. But so far, far from ideal.”
2020 Formula 1 Drivers’ Standings
| # | Driver | Team |  | |  |  | |  |  |  | |  | Wins | Pts | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 12 | 25P | 26P, FL | 25P | 19FL | 25P | 25 | 25P | - | 15 | 11 | 347 |
| 2 |  | Valtteri Bottas | Mercedes | 25P | 18 | 15 | 0 | 15P | 16FL | 0 | 4 | 4 | 18 | 2 | 223 |
| 3 |  | Max Verstappen | Red Bull | 0 | 15 | 18 | 19FL | 25 | 18 | 8 | 19FL | 0 | 25P | 2 | 214 |
| 4 |  | Sergio Perez | Racing Point | 8 | 8 | 6 | - | - | 10 | 18 | 0 | 25 | 0 | 1 | 125 |
| 5 |  | Daniel Ricciardo | Renault | 0 | 4 | 4 | 12 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 6 | 10 | 7FL | 119 | |
| 6 | | Carlos Sainz | McLaren | 10 | 3FL | 2 | 0 | 0 | 8 | 10 | 10 | 12 | 8 | 105 | |
| 7 |  | Alex Albon | Red Bull | 0 | 10 | 10 | 4 | 10 | 4 | 6 | 15 | 8 | 12 | 105 | |
| 8 | | Charles Leclerc | Ferrari | 18 | 0 | 0 | 15 | 12 | 0 | 12 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 98 | |
| 9 | | Lando Norris | McLaren | 16FL | 12 | 0 | 10 | 2 | 1 | 5FL | 12 | 1 | 10 | 97 | |
| 10 |  | Pierre Gasly | Alpha Tauri | 6 | 0 | 0 | 6 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 8 | 0 | 4 | 1 | 75 |
| 22 | | Jack Aitken | Williams | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | 0 | - | ||
| 23 |  | Pietro Fittipaldi | Haas | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | - | 0 | 0 |
Such a shame, he’s a good number two, never meant to win a title.